Loewe has turned the humble winter parka into something closer to wearable sculpture, sending an enormous inflatable yellow version down its Fall/Winter 2026 runway in Paris. The eye-catching outerwear appeared in Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez's second collection for the Spanish fashion house, presented on 6 March at the Château de Vincennes.
Rather than relying on ordinary padding alone, the designers experimented with genuinely inflatable volumes across parkas and scarves, transforming familiar cold-weather pieces into exaggerated, bulbous silhouettes.
The bright yellow parka was among the clearest examples of the idea. Its oversized hood and dramatically expanded proportions created a rounded silhouette that looked more like outdoor equipment than conventional luxury outerwear.
Loewe Takes the Puffer Jacket Literally
Puffer jackets have spent decades creating volume through layers of insulation. Loewe's FW26 experiment pushed that familiar principle much further by treating air itself as part of the garment's construction.
LVMH, Loewe's parent company, specifically highlighted the collection's 'inflatable volumes' in both parkas and scarves, describing them as examples of the house's experimental approach to craft and leatherwork.
LOEWE FW26 inflatable leather parka pic.twitter.com/2Ol3l87aY3
— hionfashion (@hionfashion) September 9, 2026
The technique allowed proportions to become dramatically exaggerated. In the yellow look, the hood, shoulders and upper body appeared dramatically enlarged, while the model wore narrow black layers underneath, making the difference in scale even more pronounced.
Other pieces explored the same concept in different ways. Inflatable scarves accompanied tailored coats, while certain outerwear designs incorporated expanded sections that altered the garment's silhouette. Lobster-claw-shaped air pumps were even displayed during a collection re-see, reinforcing the deliberate connection between the clothes and inflatable objects.
The Parka Fits Loewe's Underwater Fantasy
The inflatable clothing was part of a wider aquatic thread running through the FW26 presentation. German artist Cosima von Bonin's oversized textile sculptures occupied the show space, with marine and animal-inspired forms helping create the collection's surreal atmosphere. Loewe said her work inspired parts of the collection, while her artworks were incorporated directly into the presentation.
McCollough and Hernandez also played with materials in ways that blurred the line between real and imitation. Alongside inflatable pieces, the collection included shiny latex garments, sculpted shearling and highly manipulated leather. Loewe's own description highlights fringed and embroidered leather, shaved and sculpted shearling and injection-moulded Storm boots among the season's craft experiments.
One particularly unusual technique turned extremely thin strips of leather into yarn-like material that could be knitted into garments, extending the house's historic leather expertise beyond traditional bags and jackets.
Playfulness Was the Point
The unusual proportions were not simply intended to shock. Loewe says McCollough and Hernandez approached their second collection around the idea that making clothes could be an expression of joy, with the designers describing their process as both intellectual and deliberately playful.
That attitude appeared throughout the presentation, from oversized pockets and exaggerated outerwear to vivid colours and deceptive materials. LVMH characterised the collection as one in which unexpected details disrupted both womenswear and menswear silhouettes.
The FW26 show was also significant because McCollough and Hernandez presented both women's and men's collections for Loewe, with the menswear marking the first of their careers.
Is the Inflatable Parka Actually Wearable?
That depends on what 'wearable' means. The runway version is intentionally extreme, and its expanded proportions clearly prioritise visual impact over the restrained silhouette expected from an everyday parka. But the underlying idea is functional: inflatable sections can alter a garment's volume without relying exclusively on conventional stuffing.
Reports from the collection indicate that the inflation system was more than a visual illusion. The pieces were engineered with airtight construction, and the associated pumps show that inflation was an actual design mechanism rather than merely padded styling.
What has not been publicly established is whether the exact yellow runway parka will reach stores in precisely the form shown, how much it will cost, or how its inflation system would be maintained by customers. Those details should therefore not be stated as fact unless Loewe releases specific product information.
